Eff this effing stuff, indeed

Larue Ford is an Arizona woman who was trying to move back to the Midwest, Indiana specifically, to be near family. However, she was unable to get a job as a driver because of an upaid ticket in Berrien County, Michigan. She paid the $444 ticket but, because of a bureaucratic foul up, she still couldn’t get it erased from her record. While in the Berrien County Clerks office, she finally learned they had screwed up and forgot to collect a $50 “reinstatement fee”. Ford, who has a masters degree in social work was told to appear before the judge when she returned to pay the $50 fee and, on the way out of the Clerk’s office, muttered “fuck this fucking shit”, a pretty understandable grouse considering all they had put her through.

Ford was trying to get her Indiana driver’s license so she could a job, but first she needed to take care of an unpaid Michigan traffic fine. She paid all $444 of it, but there was a $50 reinstatement fee that the Berrien County Clerk’s Office in Niles overlooked and that led to a lot of confusion.

“She didn’t really swear at anybody in particular, but as she was leaving she said ‘f*** this f***ing s***,'” said Targowski.

Those words were heard in the clerk’s office. Someone told Judge Dennis Wiley and he held her in contempt. This all happened back on December 4. She spent one night in jail, but had to go back on the 18th. That’s when her bond was set to $5,000. Ford has been in jail since then.

“She’s demure, she’s positive, but she’s realizing that this is dragging on for quite a long time and she’s being deprived of liberty,” said Targowski.

Ford’s defense team says Wiley had no right to put Ford in jail in the first place since the judge didn’t actually witness her curse.

“Normally criminal contempt is a crime you know you can’t swear and use foul language in front of a judge in a courtroom, the judge has the power to hold you in contempt, that’s lawful, but that has to happen in the judge’s presence, the judge has to see what happened here wasn’t those set of facts,” Targowski said.

“I thought it was a joke,” the 49-year-old woman told 24 Hour News 8 in a phone interview from the Berrien County Jail, where she has been locked up for nine days.

“I thought I was on a hidden camera. I really thought it was a joke. I just didn’t believe what was happening to me.”

Then, she was taken to the jail in St. Joseph and strip-searched, she said.

“It was disgraceful, embarrassment, and they make you feel like I was a criminal,” said Ford, who has no criminal record. “They were judging me before they even know me.”

Ford is charged with contempt of court, a misdemeanor, for what records call: “profanity in the clerk’s office” in Niles.

She is claiming racism. She is black; the judge is white.

“I think it’s because the color of my skin,” she said.

Strip searched. For swearing.

I’m flabbergasted at this. Ford tried to fix things, got frustrated at the hoops she was put through and cursed in her frustration as she was leaving and for that she spent Christmas in jail. She can’t even get herself out of jail because “the judge revoked her $5,000 bond because she had no permanent address in Indiana.” I don’t blame her for thinking this is racism. It’s hard to imagine why else a judge would jail her, particularly over the Christmas holiday, simply for swearing in a Clerk’s office. The strip search and revoking of her bond are salt in the wound.

Michigan, the country already thinks we’re trying to take the crown as the most dumbass state in the Union. Do we really have to invent new ways to prove that we are?

[H/T to Imani Gandy, owner of the Angry Black Lady Chronicles, for bringing this egregious garbage to my attention. As she points out in her piece on this story embarrassment to the state of Michigan, Berrien County is the home of Benton Harbor, a place I have written about countless times over he past three years.]

Author: EclectablogChris Savage is the owner and publisher of Eclectablog, your one-stop shop for progressive state & national political news & commentary.

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Mitchell Robinson is associate professor and chair of music education at Michigan State University. His research is focused on music education and education policy. Follow him on Facebook HERE and Twitter at @mrobmsu. His own blog is at MitchellRobinson.net.

Susan J. Demas is a Democratic strategist, serving as vice president at Farough & Associates. She is a 17-year veteran of journalism and a syndicated political columnist for 12 years. She was most recently the editor and publisher of Inside Michigan Politics. Follow her on Twitter @sjdemas.

Tawana “Honeycomb” Petty is a mother, social justice organizer, youth advocate, poet and author. She was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and is intricately involved in water rights, digital justice and visionary organizing work in Detroit. You can learn more about Tawana "Honeycomb" Petty by visiting honeycombthepoet.com. She's on Twitter at @CombsThePoet.